LAURINBURG — With his rookie season out of the way, second-year head coach Chad Hill has just one more week before opening day to get the Fighting Scots baseball team game ready.

The unseasonably warm weather and a group of young, but experienced, Scots taking the field, Hill is looking forward to March 2 when the team hosts soon-to-be conference opponent Seventy-First High School.

“This year it’s been less time getting them acquainted to me and more time on baseball specifics which has been great,” said Hill. “It took the kids a little bit to adjust to last season but this year in our off season the expectation of what I wanted was already there. The NCHSAA changing the eight-man workouts to unlimited workouts for 90 minutes I feel like that has help us tremendously to where we’re a little more than we were last year.”

In Hill’s first season as the Scots head coach the team finished 16-6 overall and 7-3 in Southeastern conference play to finish second in the conference behind Richmond, after an extra innings loss in the SEC championship. The Scots record was good enough to get them into the NCHSAA 4A playoffs, but they lost in the first round to Butler in the bottom of the seventh inning, 5-4.

“We were very excited about last year, especially being picked fifth in the pre-season voting,” said Hill. “We’re excited how we came along, but I think it took them about half the season to truly get the coaching because all of the coaches were in a different role, even the ones who were here previously.”

Greg Wrape will be calling pitches for the Scots and Matt Sellers will be the third-base coach during games and help the Scots offense get up to speed.

An area Hill thinks the Scots will be strong in this season is their pitching staff with six guys in the rotation, which will be key considering the new pitch count limits the NCHSAA recently put in place. According to the new rules, a pitcher is only allowed to throw a maximum of 105 pitches per day. Four days rest will be required if a pitcher throws more than 76 pitches in a day. As the number of pitches goes down, so does the days of rest that are required. Throwing 61-75 pitches will require a pitcher to rest for three days; 46-60 pitches will require two days of rest; 31-45 pitches will require one day of rest. If a pitcher throws between 1-30 pitches they will not be required to take an rest days.

Hill doesn’t think with his staff that the pitch counts will be an issue because the Scots aim to throw less than three pitches per batter.

“What we preach to our kids is in three pitches we want them on base or in the dugout, so we want to throw to contact because we have a pretty good defense that we’re going to run out there,” said Hill. “Those hits will keep them on the defense toes and keep the pace of the game going.”

That mentality has Hill taking an interesting approach to strikeouts. The second-year Scots coach hopes his team is dead last in the state in strikeouts, because in order to strike a batter out his pitchers would have to throw at least three pitches per batter — which is not something he wants.

Taking the mound for the Scots this year will be sophomores Daly Marcano, Matthew Hyatt and Austin Norton along with senior Justin Ray, who only played three games for the Scots last season before being sidelined with a hamstring injury. In the relief role will be seniors Donta Green and Justin Bowers.

“We threw two sophomores last year — Marcano and Hyatt — they threw a lot of innings late in the year and we’re looking for them to pick up where they left off,” said Hill. “We’re also going to count on a lot — Donta Green and Justin Bowers in the relief role. Justin Ray, was hurt last year, but has looked really good on the mound. We’re going to count on those five up front, we brought up Austin Norton a lot last year and we’ll be calling on him again this season, as needed.”

Hill said his pitching staff, coached by Greg Wrape, has been focusing on the accuracy of each pitch versus trying to blow the ball past batters.

“We don’t want them throwing anything straight down the plate, even if they throw really hard someone is going to be able to time that up,” he said. “We talk about movement, we have a couple guys who can throw it by people but the majority of our guys will spot their pitches and can change speeds really well.”

The Scots offense and defense are pushing full steam ahead as well in order to remain at the top of the SEC standings, according to Hill the team was selected third in this year’s pre-season poll along with Richmond. Pinecrest was tabbed the pre-season favorite to win the SEC title, followed by Purnell in second. Lumberton and Hoke ranked fifth and six in the pre-season voting.

“Pinecrest is very loaded, they are the pre-season favorites. Purnell is extremely talented in second place,” said Hill. “We are tied with Richmond for third place and Lumberton in the five spot and Hoke in last. Hoke has some really good players this year that are young guys who improved over the summer, so our conference like every year is arguably one of the toughest in the state. It will be a dog fight every Tuesday and Friday.”

The Scots hope to win the conference and be crowned the conference champions, because with the NCHSAA rules changes only those two teams receive an automatic bid to the 4A playoffs, the rest of the field is based on a team’s 22-game record.

“With the new rule non-conference games are just as important as our conference games, in terms of making the playoffs,” said Hill. “The crazy thing about baseball is there is no split 4A or 4AA, so it’s a full-out battle come May when the playoffs roll around.”

The Scots open their season on Feb. 27 with a home game against Seventy-First High School, the game was originally scheduled as an away game but has been changed to a home game. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. and despite having a young group taking the field, Hill is confident his team has what it takes to compete.

“There will be nights we start four sophomores, there will be nights we start two or three sophomores but I feel like they are ready to play at the varsity level, but we know there will be a learning curve with our young kids,” Hill said. “To help with that, we have our juniors and seniors that are stepping up as team leaders and getting everyone on the same page.”

Amber Hatten can be reached at 910-506-3170.

https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_IMG_8921-1.jpg

Amber Hatten | Laurinburg Exchange The Fighting Scots senior baseball players are, from left, McKenzie White, Austin Clark, Justin Bowers, Justin Ray and Donta Green.
https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_IMG_8926.jpgAmber Hatten | Laurinburg Exchange The Fighting Scots senior baseball players are, from left, McKenzie White, Austin Clark, Justin Bowers, Justin Ray and Donta Green.
Season opens Feb. 27 at 5 p.m.

By Amber Hatten

[email protected]

2017 Fighting Scots Baseball Schedule
Feb. 27 Seventy-First
March 2 East Columbus
March 6 Marlboro Co.
March 10 Norfolk Christian
March 11 Butler
March 15 @Harnett Central
March 18 Laney
March 21 @Purnell Swett
March 24 Purnell Swett
March 27 @Seventy-First
March 28 Pinecrest
March 31 @Pinecrest
April 1 @Laney
April 4 Hoke
April 6 @Hoke
April 10 @Douglas Byrd
April 11 @Lumberton
April 13 Lumberton
April 15

Easter Tourney at

Douglas Byrd

April 17

Easter Tourney atDouglas Byrd

April 18

Easter Tourney atDouglas Byrd

April 21 @Jack Britt
April 25 Richmond
April 27 @Richmond
May 1-5 Conference Tourney